Bittersweet
by Priestess Luna
Summary: Now that he is gone, you will be brought to your new home. Just remember Chihiro. All actions come with consequences." Discontinue


Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Spirited Away. I only own an extremely fat cat by the name of Slippers.   
  
'' Telepathy  
  
"" Speaking  
  
~~ Flashback  
  
Here is a story I thought of while reading a book for school. It seems like an interesting plot line to me.  
  
Enjoy!  
  
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Chapter 1  
  
"Why did it come to this? Why?!" Her voice rang in the room, its depth of feeling making the stonewalls groan with pain. The sheer irony of her feelings being able to affect inanimate objects was a rare gift. One that should not be taken for granted. Chihiro's eyes darted around the room, taking in the worn and moss eaten stone. This was no place she would call home. It was a prison. Her prison.  
  
Tears streaked her cheeks, her frame shaking frantically from the bitter cold and the sobs that were racking her body as she slid down the slimy wall. The torture she had to go through was finally catching up to her after all these years. She could no longer hide that she was still a child inside, screaming for someone to rescue her from this nightmare that wouldn't go away. The nightmare that had finally taken the form of reality in its harshest design.  
  
Her usual cheerful and beautiful eyes were red and slightly puffy from crying, even though it wasn't that unusual for her to be found like this in her room these days. She had curled herself up into a ball, in hopes of protecting her from the bitterness of her enslavement and tragic excuse of a life worth living.   
  
Her kimono of fancy silks and elaborate decor covered her body barely since she had grown in the last 7 years of her enslavement and imprisonment from a scrawny and pretty looking girl-child to a beautiful and slender young woman. Her hair hung limply over her body, its lush shine and silky strands now fading as her emotions changed from content to grief and bitterness in the last few hours.  
  
This was what her life had become in the last 7 years of her short existence. She was no longer the cheerful, scrawny, and brave girl-child that had saved her parents from the Spirit World. She was now a sad, pitiful, beautiful, slender, and still brave young woman that was held captive because she had dared to fall in love with a river spirit while she was a human.   
  
Now being a river spirit herself, she had sometimes cursed herself for being so dense and naive to fall in love with a river spirit when there was no future for a river spirit from the Spirit World and a human from the Human World together. If that had happened after she turned into the river spirit of the Ishikari River, it might have been different.   
  
It was too late to change the past she knew. With her actions came consequences she was not ready for, no matter how old she was. She could still remember that day as clearly as if it happened the day before. It was the day when she was to leave the Spirit World and told to never look back. And what did she do. She looked back and whispered the most sacred words that could ever escape anyone's lips.   
  
Words that gave a declaration for her feelings and cast her into the imprisonment that she was in now. Words that made her a slave to them and brought her pain beyond that of any other kind. Words that were said out of love.  
  
~Flashback~  
  
"There is no water here. I can walk across now."  
  
"But I can't go any farther. Just go back the way you came. You'll be fine. But you have to promise not to look back, not until you've passed through the tunnel."  
  
"What about you? What'll you do?"  
  
"Don't worry. I'll go back and have a talk with Yubaba. I'll tell her I'll quit being her apprentice. I'm fine. I got my name back."  
  
"Will we meet again sometime?"  
  
"Sure we will."  
  
"Promise?"  
  
"Promise. Now go and don't look back."  
  
Chihiro ran down the steps, not once looking back at her beloved Haku. She would never let him know how she truly felt about him. Maybe not now but she knew she would one day when he kept his promise to her that they would meet again. For now, she would be content enough to live her life in this new place known as Oneida. She would always remember her time in the Spirit World and all the friends she had come to make there.  
  
As she reached the end of the steps and ran over the hill and towards her parents, she couldn't help but feel compelled to look back. A little peek wouldn't hurt. She knew that much. But would she get in a lot of trouble? She doubted it, since she was very far from any living spirit and she doubted anyone really cared if she did.   
  
So with that last thought, she took a deep breath and waved at her parents who were waiting patiently for her at the bottom of the hill near the tunnel. For some odd reason, she felt like this was the last time she would ever see her parents. Ignoring the feeling, she spun around and looked out into the spirit world with eyes full of happiness and wonder.   
  
She whispered the words that she never said out loud but many times in her head. She had wished to say them to Haku before she had left but she knew it wasn't the appropriate time to say them. Not even now seemed like the right time but there was no better time like the present. "I love you, Kohaku...." Her voice trailed off, full of so much compassion and feeling that it surprised Chihiro the most since her voice didn't normally sound like that.   
  
She bit her lip after she said it, staying still as she heard a sound that sounded a lot like a cry of anguish and pain in the distance. Not wanting to wait anymore, she failed to notice the now darkening sky and distant crackles of thunder. Chihiro turned towards the bottom of the hill, where her parents were no longer waiting for her and ran. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her, her heart drumming in her ears. Her legs began to throb at her speed, not used to such treatment.   
  
Her heart was racing as her breath caught in her throat, her legs carrying her to the bottom of the hill and towards the tunnel. Her eyes were wild with fright, grasping onto the hope that everything would be alright. Nothing could happen to her now that she had Yubaba destroy her contract and saved her parents from the Spirit World. Everything would go back to the way things were. Nothing would change. She would be the same old Chihiro, with a few new memories of course.  
  
Common sense told her not to be cocky. Fear completely overruled common sense and told her to run with everything she had. What did she listen to? What fear told her to do. She ran, until her legs felt as if they would fall off and her heart explodes. She ran until she couldn't run anymore, pushing on her very low reserved energy. She ran until she could no more, collapsing only a few feet away from the entrance to the tunnel back to the Human World.  
  
She tried to push herself onwards, fear pushing all other thoughts out of her mind. Her legs were too weak to move. Her arms numb from the rain that had started to beat down on her. She cried in agony, her sobs never truly reaching her ears. The rain silenced any sound that escaped her lips. Thunder crackled and lightening flashed, lighting up the ground around her.   
  
As it became too dark for Chihiro to see, fear and hopelessness took over her completely. She no longer tried to move her body. She no longer cried out her fear and pain. Numb took over all feeling until she couldn't tell if she was alive or dead. Her heartbeat slowed, her breathing come out in even breaths. Her pulse was steady, her eyes drooping. Sleep tried to claim her, no energy left to keep her awake. She fought it, as best she could. She had no energy left, so it became a hopeless cause.  
  
With her energy spent and all feeling gone, she decided to surrender to the darkness that beckoned to her. Her eyes closed, her breathing became shallow. Her heartbeat slowed until a faint pulse could only be found. She left the world that she knew so well, surrendering to a dream world that told her what was to come.  
  
In her dream world, she dreamed of her friends. She dreamed of her parents and the baby boy they were expecting. She dreamed of her goals and accomplishments she would never be able to complete. She dreamed of a life without ever meeting Haku. She dreamed of her life that would of happened if they had never moved. From her first kiss to the twins that she would of had, she dreamed. She loved her dreams and wanted to live in the world of dreams forever.  
  
Fate wasn't kind enough to let her do that. She began to hear voices that did not come from her dream characters. Voices that sounded vaguely familiar that she could not place. Voices that were of people that she should remember. Voices that were discussing what would happen to her.  
  
"You have no say in this Master Kohaku. You have helped this human break the rules already too many times. You no longer have the power to help her."  
  
"Master Jenjin, please. I will not leave Chihiro here to die when I have the power and authority to help her."  
  
"I am sorry Master Kohaku but there is nothing you can do. The counsel is making their final decisions at this very moment. It is too late for anyone to do anything."  
  
"But Master Jenjin please. You don't understand. I lo-"  
  
"Master Kohaku! That is enough."  
  
"Master Jenjin. Master Kohaku. Mistress Yubaba. Mistress Zeniba. Mistress Rin. Master Kamaji. May I have all your attentions, please."  
  
"What has the counsel decided on the course of action on the breakage of such grounds?"  
  
"By order of the High Counsel, the human Chihiro, also known as Sen to the Aburaya under the ownership of Mistress Yubaba, will be put into the custody of Master Yukio, slave trader of the Spirit World. Under his custody and guidance, she will be kept as his personal servant in order to learn the customs, laws, and ways of the Spirits until her 17th birthday when she will then go to work at the Aburaya under the ownership of Mistress Yubaba and be under the care of Master Kohaku and Mistress Zeniba. She is also unauthorized to ever return to the Human World in her entire lifetime and unable to contact any other human that she will come in contact with or has known in the past. She is also forbidden in ever falling in love with a spirit that is part of this world. By this, the High Counsel has spoken."  
  
"What! I will not let you give Chihiro to that man!"  
  
"Oh god..."  
  
"What do you mean under the custody of Master Yukio? He will not teach her anything. He will torture the poor child until she will barely be able to stand. By giving her to him, you are killing her!"  
  
"The High Counsel has lost all my respect to doing this to a child. A mere child..."  
  
"Even I think that is too severe for such a small child. A human to say the least."  
  
"What has Master Yukio promised you in order to get the human child known as Chihiro into his clutches and under his care?"  
  
"That is enough! The High Counsel has spoken and there is nothing that can be done to change their decision. Now leave before you are forced out. We will take care of the preparations that will lead the human child Chihiro to her new home."  
  
"But-"  
  
"You have been asked to leave."  
  
"I will not leave Chihiro! You can't make me!"  
  
"Restrain him!"  
  
"Let me go! I will not leave Chihiro! CHIHIRO!"  
  
"Now that he is gone, you will be brought to your new home. Just remember Chihiro. All actions come with consequences."  
  
~End of Flashback~  
  
That was what had happened almost 7 years ago. She was torn from her family. She was sold into slavery. She was enslaved and imprisoned by a spirit that she hated more then anyone else she had ever known. She was forced to forget her friends. She was treated lower then dirt. She was beaten, raped, and tortured more then most people in 100 lifetimes.   
  
She was given a new name while her old one was taken from her. But most of all, she was forbidden to love. And the most tragic of things was, it was too late for her to ever feel anything like happiness, content, compassion, kindness, and most of all, love ever again.  
  
Because of her love, she was forced into a life she never wanted. Because of her love, she changed. Because of her love, she cannot feel. Because of her love, she has no heart to love.  
  
End of Chapter 1  
  
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Different, I know. It is not like any other story I have written. Hope it's not too cruel. 


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